Patent suit takes aim at Apple over iPhone, iPad 3G data transfer

A new lawsuit accuses Apple and a host of other companies, including Research in Motion, Amazon, Nokia and Sony, of violating three patents related to GPRS 3G data transfer.

The complaint comes from GPNE Corp., based in Honolulu, Hawaii, which has accused Apple and others of infringing on patents related to general packet radio service. As part of the 3G standard for GSM radio frequencies, it allows features such as multimedia messaging, push-to-talk over cellular, always-on Internet access, and point-to-point networking.

The lawsuit accuses "computerized communications devices and computerized tablet devices" manufactured by Apple of infringing on patents it owns. Specifically, GPNE accuses Apple of three counts of patent violation, related to the following inventions:

U.S. Patent No. 7,570,954 - "Communication System Wherein a Clocking Signal from a Controller, a Request from a Node, Acknowledgement of the Request, and Data Transferred from the Node are All Provided on Different Frequencies, Enabling Simultaneous Transmission of these Signals"

U.S. Patent No. 7,792,492 - "Network Communication System with an Alignment Signal to Allow a Controller to Provide Messages to Nodes and Transmission of the Messages Over Four Independent Frequencies"

The first two patents were granted in 2009, while the U.S. Patent and Trademark office awarded the '492 patent in 2010. The filing notes that the inventions were "conceived in Hawaii by two local residents," one of whom, Gabriel Wong, is chairman of GPNE.

The complaint accuses Apple of making and selling portable devices "with the ability to function with GPRS." It specifically names the iPhone 4 and iPad, but is broadly worded to encompass any other 3G-capable devices and models in Apple's product lineup.

In addition to Apple, the full list of defendants in the suit is Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, Garmin, Nokia, Pantech, Research in Motion, Sharp, and Sony Ericsson. Other devices listed in the suit include the Amazon Kindle, Barnes & Noble Nook, and BlackBerry Torch 9800.

GPNE has asked the court for damages, and to require the defendants to pay "a reasonable, on-going, post judgment royalty" for the right to use technology allegedly associated with the '267, '954 and '492 patents. It was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Hawaii on July 1, 2011.

I'm sure that they'll just settle out of court with most of these companies and then agree to pay the royalties required.

Except in patents it isn't. Mostly a firm that wants to get royalties on a patent will start by attacking a weak firm, getting them to pay up, then using their licensing as evidence that their patent is valid, when they go after the next guy.

It's not incontrovertible evidence of course, but it's enough often for a preliminary ruling in their favour, and at that point they're in a stronger bargaining position.

Going out for the top names in the industry all at once is just begging to be buried in prior art.

The complaint comes from GPNE Corp., based in Honolulu, Hawaii, which has accused Apple and others of infringing on patents related to general packet radio service. As part of the 3G standard for GSM radio frequencies, it allows features such as multimedia messaging, push-to-talk over cellular, always-on Internet access, and point-to-point networking.

How can these patents have been granted and also be REQUIRED for GPRS/3G communications devices? The patents were FILED at the earliest 2007, which is many years after these standards were both ratified.

Yikes, that is one serious list of defendants, these guys must be either extremely confident of their patent's validity or extremely stupid.

Just the opposite. Throw a big pile of crap at the wall and see if anything sticks. What's also interesting are the companies missing from the list, really big ones. Makes one wonder if some puppeteering is going on behind the scenes.

Why on earth is a patent related to G3 coming up now. Shouldn't these people have noticed before this, or shouldn't somebody have noticed that they have a patent to this tech?

Start a petition for a use it or lose it patent law. Get rid of the trolls, people and companies either use their "inventions", sell the rights outright (no licensing), or lose them after some short time period. Companies using their patents could of course license them to others. And while we're at it, refine patent law so that "methods" have to be specific, no all encompassing general stuff that might apply to anyone. I realize that the actual text of the patent is not often fully disclosed, but when abstracts are so general you have to wonder.

Sometimes I think that this is the companies' business, what does it have to do with me? Then I wonder how many dollars of my iPhone, iPod or iPad purchase go into the hands of lawyers and trolls. I'd really rather not be paying them.